Hell Blaze
by KamuiK
Summary: Something really bad happened to Utsuho and she went on a rampage killing mercilessly anyone standing in her way. Only one person can save Gensokyo - and it's neither Reimu nor Marisa. - Contains some explicit descriptions, read at your own risk.
1. The apocalypse has raven wings

**The apocalypse has raven wings**

It was a calm, mild day in Gensokyo. Cicadas were audible in the morning, and the sun was shining after a long week of permanent rain. The grass was green and a fragrant, faint and pleasant smell of cherry was in the air. It was spring once again. Byakuren Hijiri sat outside of her shrine, together with her followers Shou Toramaru and Nue Houjuu.

The three enjoyed the first tea in the sunshine.

"Say Shou, could you reach me the cookies?", asked Nue before sipping on her cup of green tea. Shou reached for the package, but grabbed into emptiness.

"...Where are the cookies?", she asked and looked at Byakuren.

"I-I-I di-did not eat them, really.", Byakuren answered hastily, looking around nervously.

Shou raised an eyebrow: "Really? It's a bad habit to lie."

"Actually...", a voice was audible from inside the shrine.

The unenlightened darkness offered an unimaginable deepness.

"... I ate them." The voice reappeared.

Two glowing-red eyes lit up from inside. Steps were audible and the old wood made sounds accompanying those slow steps. Then a girl came outside. Her large, black wings spanned, her jet black hair waving in the calm wind, she wore a large cape with a moving star pattern on the inside and a symbol made of a hollow circle and 3 bent, hollow trapezes around it in gold on the outside, a dark green miniskirt, a blouse in dark grey and on it was another eye, giant and red. Her boots and fingerless gloves were a very dark brownish-red, accompanied with flame symbols and she wore a dark hair band, a necklace with a ruby in cross-form and small chains everywhere. On her hip's right, she had something hanging, a kind of large, spiked staff emblazoned in mysterious symbols.

Shou readied her spear, feeling a strong presence coming from her: "Who are you? Tell me your name!"

"I am Utsuho Reiuji, the eternal flame of the old and new hell. I also am the last star in this universe, if I may say so.", the mysterious girl replied.

"You? A star? Don't make me laugh! I will show you what you say there is non-sense! C'mon!" Nue was angry. Someone ate the cookies she wanted, on such a peaceful day to boot. She readied her trident, and before neither Shou nor Byakuren could say something, she and Utsuho were already in the air.

"Very well then, I shall propose the rules. No hiding, no dirty tricks and no holding back." proclaimed Utsuho while taking her staff and fitting it like a glove over her right arm.

"Good, but we will not fight here. I know a region where we can fight as much as we want. Follow me!", Nue boasted in return.

The two went away to a near forest. Arriving there, Utsuho let out her voice again: "You may fire the first barrage if you want, asymmetric girl."

Byakuren wanted to follow them and make them stop before anyone will get hurt, but Shou held her back: "Please let them do. If you disturb them now, they might come and fight over here. Think about the children in the shrine."

"Oh god yes the children!" Byakuren hurried inside. In the meanwhile, Nue took her staff and had summoned a group of rainbow UFOs. She switched positions between them instantly, while they fired gradient lasers and danmaku all around. Utsuho remained in the position she was with closed eyes. None of the UFOs could actually hit her.

Then Nue appeared behind her, ready to slash her trident into Utsuho's back, but it was a futile action. Utsuho turned around, grabbed Nue's trident and broke it into two.

"Is that all?" she said while grabbing Nue's arm. "I hope not. Show me something else!"

She started to turn around in circles, faster and faster with each round and then let loose of Nue, catapulting her into a tree on the ground. "I'll end this quick and pain-free." she said with a monotone voice. Nue sat in the tree and looked up to her opponent. Charging her cannon, Utsuho made a creepy gesture – and fired a large, bright beam dwarfing even Marisa's Master Spark.

The explosion could be heard over several kilometres and a mushroom-like cloud appeared. Gale winds ripped everything away, even some houses. A crater of over half a kilometre was burned into the ground, and the trees around it where knocked down like they were actually made of thin paper. Settling down, Utsuho went to the ground to search for her opponent. Nue was somewhere in the dust and mud, badly hurt and bleeding heavily but still alive.

"Oh my, quite the resistant type, aren't you?" Utsuho held the soon-to-be corpse on her hair up.

"...Why... why?" Nue gasped.

"What do you mean with 'why'?", Utsuho asked in return.

"Why are you so... powerful?"

Utsuho smirked: "Because soon, you will be me as well." With these words, Utsuho stabbed her staff into Nue's chest. Wet noises could be heard, and Nue began to disintegrate into white spheres of light.

Testing out her new powers, the blood-stained Utsuho transformed her wings into the ones Nue had and back.

"I see, so your true power is to hide, is it? How useless. Oh?"

She looked down. Her boots were now accompanied by black long knee socks.

"Interesting..." was all she said. Flapping her raven wings, Utsuho went up with unimaginable speed, back to the shrine. Upon landing, both Byakuren and Shou stood outside, disgusted at the sight of Utsuho bathed in blood.

"Where... is NUE!" Byakuren screamed.

"She has... returned to the life stream. All souls do this. But a part of her has joined me. Hehe. Hahaha! HAHAHAHAHA!" Utsuho, with an insane facial expression, changed her wings again. "How about you? Don't you want to join me too?" she asked with a very scary voice.

Byakuren was devastated, Shou however was very angry.

"You monster!" she screamed and rushed forward. She slashed with her spear at Utsuho, who simply grabbed it like Nue's trident before and pulled Shou to her.

"Any last words?" An icy stare awaited Shou, and only moments later Shou fell to the ground, with a hole gaping in her chest. In agony, she breathed her life out, while Utsuho stepped over the bleeding girl for the next victim.

"Shou! No! No! NOOO!" Byakuren screamed.

"Hey, that was only your servant, wasn't she? What's the matter? She would have let you down sometime anyway." Utsuho commented coldly.

Byakuren had large tears in her eyes: "No, why did you do that? What did we do to make you commit such gruesome acts?"

"Nothing, really. Now, I sense you are stronger than her. Fight now or finally die, I don't care either way."

Byakuren took her magical scroll out. "You are a complete monster! I will allow no further victims!"

Utsuho smirked again: "Bring it on!"

The two of them went high in the air, and Byakuren flapped a large flower symbol on her back. The scroll glowed brightly and large amounts of danmaku came out of lotus-shaped orbs. Streams of energy fired through the air, hunting Utsuho down while she however had no problems escaping them.

"Is that ALL?" she screamed. "Show me MORE, damn it!"

Byakuren took a new position and began to rush around, following Utsuho through the sky.

While the hell raven fired her weapon multiple times with explosions resulting around the saint, Byakuren packed another strike. A lightning strike struck into the ground, just centimetres near the flight path of Utsuho.

The raven girl just waited for such a moment: "Interesting but not enough." She had charged her cannon all the time and fired. A large fireball almost hit Byakuren, but she was not the target. Once the energy orb hit the ground, it exploded, taking the shrine with it.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Byakuren turned around to Utsuho after seeing the destruction: "There were CHILDREN in there! You are insane, totally insane! DIE!" she screamed and used instant-movement to get behind that devil of a bird. Byakuren wanted to stab her, but Utsuho did not let her.

"Don't be ridiculous. This just does not work, get that!" She grabbed her right arm and crushed it instantly. Byakuren screamed in pain and fell to the ground. Looking below, Utsuho readied her cannon once again.

"You just piss me off! Why don't you finally die!" she screamed and fired another beam. Byakuren closed her eyes and muttered a prayer. Then all flashed white. She could not hear the explosion any more, and was vaporised.

"Shit! I just might have overdone it." Utsuho said while patting her head. Nothing was left but just another crater, and no remains of Byakuren were left. "Great, just great... So much for acquiring that saint's power..." With these words, and without further thoughts, she went away immediatly.


	2. The lifestream

**The life-stream**

"Am I dead? Or am I alive? I can feel warmth and coldness alike. Is this the world of Dharma?" Byakuren opened her eyes, slowly.

Her clothes were dirty but intact, her scroll yet gone. "Where am I?"

She looked around, and looked into a large nothingness in the sky. A single star, brighter than any of those she had seen before, led the way along a path cluttered with creepy lights. Blue fires hushed trough the air, and fade screams could be heard from long away.

"I should get going.", she whispered to herself. A little unsure but overall confident, she walked along a path, to soon hear the sounds of a large river.

The sanzu river of the dead opened up in front of her. A ferrywoman, clad in long blue clothes with a scythe larger than herself, sat in a small boat near the docks and awaited customers.

"Oi! Are you here to go to the other side? The sanzu is long and wild, and I am the only person to get you over. The name's Komachi Onozuka. Nice to meet you." The shinigami had long red hair, tied together and was quite imposing.

"I am... Hijiri. Byakuren Hijiri. You fulfil the task of bringing the dead to the other side? What noble work." she said with a low voice.

Komachi scratched her head: "Nah not really. My boss always smacks me for being lazy." Then she put a sharp view: "Anyway! You have a burden to bear. Your death was not of natural occurrence. Also, you are a youkai, but you were once human, I can feel that. What happened in the material world?"

Byakuren told her what happened, and Komachi listened carefully. "Yes yes, I understand. This explains why so many customers appeared recently." the shinigami said and added: "Watch it, I cannot help you, but I might know someone who can. However you will have to go to the other side with me, and once there, there's no returning back if you get handed down."

Byakuren considered her options. Will she remain here and wait or risk to never return but maybe get a second chance? "I agree. For the sake of the people and the world, I will go with you. Take me to the person you know."

Byakuren paid for the ferry and the both of them went to the other side. A large gate awaited the visitors from afar.

"Go in and meet Shikieiki Yamaxanadu, my boss. She is one of the judges of the dead. Offer her your proposal, and ask for Keine Kamishirasawa. This is the person who might be able to help you." Komachi twinkled and went off.

Self-confident, Byakuren went in front of the large, golden gate, which was emblazoned with runes symbolising the number 9 over and over, and demanded access. It opened with a loud, rusty sound and behind it was an even larger room. In the middle stood a giant desk made of cherry wood with golden stairs and familiars ran around with blocks of paper. A complete chaos had broken out in the bureau.

"This... is the gate to nothingness?" Byakuren wondered and stepped in. On top of the large desk sat a small girl with green hair, a wooden sword or stick and a rather cute nice hat.

"Oh yeah, come on in, come on in. Name, address, age and species please...", she said rather stingy.

"Uh... Byakuren Hijiri, Todaru village in Gensokyo, 1189 and youkai magician... I think." Byakuren answered timidly.

"You THINK? Hell, what's wrong with the people today, don't even know what species they are!" the tiny girl shouted angrily.

"Uh, are you Shikieiki Yamaxanadu?" Byakuren was a little unsure.

The girl mustered her. "And you are the first doll in a set of seven or what? Yes, I am the one, a judge of the dead. As you see... Hey you freakin' idiots, the papers with the people who died yesterday come into the drawer Kana-2-45, not Kana-2-43! Jeez... Where was I? Ah yes, I am Shikieiki. You see, total chaos has broken out here. Something went wrong in the material world and we have to run overtime to get it all done. Notice the long row of souls behind me? All those died in the last few hours. Now to you. Tell me how you died for the records."

Byakuren thought heavily about it, then it came to her: "I was killed by a youkai who has most certainly fallen for insanity. She was unbearably strong and overly cruel. She did not hesitate to kill two of my best friends and over 3 dozen children and their teach... Ah yes!"

Byakuren placed her arms violently on Shikieiki's desk. "I need your help! Bring me to Keine Kamishirasawa!"

Shikieiki leaned back: "Why should I do that?"

"Because I need her help!", Byakuren shouted. "If you don't bring me to her, the world..."

She was cut out by Shikieiki: "LISTEN! I don't care who you are or what you have done in the material world, but down here it's only ME who decides. Besides, Keine is..."

Now Byakuren cut her out, smirking: "It will help reduce your work."

Puzzled, Shikieiki turned around at once and began shouting again: "Hey you idiots, bring me Keine Kamishirasawa AT ONCE!"

Keine was bought to Byakuren, who introduced herself once again and explained what happened.

"I see. All this in a day where the class makes a school trip to learn about our ancestors. You were so grateful to let us use your shrine for some studies too." Keine said depressively.

"Keine, I need your help. Komachi the ferrywoman told me you have a power I could use to prevent all this. Tell me, what is that power you wield?" Byakuren asked while putting her hands on Keine's shoulders.

Keine was unsure how to react accordingly: "My power... is to consume history. I can undo things. On a night of a full moon, I can also write new history."

Byakuren took Keine's hands: "This is it. Can you use that power and undo the slaughter? I do not think Miss Shikieiki would particularly mind it."

Shikieiki was annoyed: "Yes yes, ignore the rules all you want, but that power does not work down here. Who is dead is dead, end of the story. Can we now continue please, there are lots of other people wanting to join the netherworld too."

This was a big let-down for Byakuren. Her only hope was just crushed by a senseless law.

"Uh... maybe?" one of the familiars, who looked like an Oni with glasses, appeared behind Byakuren.

"Yes? What is it?"

The Oni pointed towards a door: "That room allows to transfer powers from one person to another. It's under repair right now but it still might work."

"Why is there a room for that?" Byakuren wondered.

Either way, Keine already took her hand and the both of them went into it. The room was huge. All in white, in the middle was a platform made of gold. Runes made of black ink ran over the surface and two spots were kept in a white, almost blending light. The both of them went under one pillar of light each, and the Oni came in.

"Why do you wish to give me our power? Shikieiki said it will not work here." Byakuren asked.

"Well that counts for me, but you are a saint. The gods owe you one for once." Keine answered.

"I will now activate the process." the Oni girl said and the runes ran over Byakuren's and Keine's bodies. It was an unpleasant feeling for them but it took only a few minutes. Then something unexpected happened. The runes on Byakuren's body did not vanish, instead they became more and more, until she was completely taken in by them. She screamed in agony and an explosion followed. The force of the explosion destroyed the platform, but neither Keine nor the Oni were actually hurt. Byakuren was not hurt either and slowly glided to the ground – and vanished.

"What happened just now?" She wondered, then looked in front of her. She stood behind the Oni girl and saw herself on the platform which just exploded. Then it exploded again, and the force knocked her out of the room.

The door shut and Shikieiki screamed: "What the HELL are you doing?"

Byakuren stood up and looked around. Then she vanished again and appeared a few moments later. This new ability of hers, whatever it was, seemed to be rather jumpy.

This happened a few more times, until she seemed to get the hang of it, then she disappeared once again. Shikieiki was annoyed by those disturbances and even more when Byakuren came out of a door at the other side with two cups of tea in her hands. She went above to Shikieiki and reached her one to make her calm down.

"It's time travel." Byakuren said self-sure.

Shikieiki almost let loose of the cup out of shock: "Time travel?"

"Yes. I can only slightly control it, but it seems to bring me to places and times I want."

Shikieiki had calmed down a little: "Fine, let me say this for once. This explains why you are the fourth by now. Now get off like you did before."

Byakuren was confused. "The fourth? What do you mean with this, please explain it."

Shikieiki didn't bother to answer and told her to leave, and she did so. Outside, Byakuren tried her new ability out again – and landed in a river. But it was a river in the material world. The sun was shining, cicadas were audible and the leaves were falling.

"Wait? Leaves are falling? It's autumn!"


	3. A horror unspoken

**A horror unspoken**

Byakuren stood up and went out of the river first. She undressed and tried to dry her clothes with some success. Since it was still warm, unusual for autumn, the drying did not take too long. However, something bothered her: it was silent all around. No birds were heard, the wind was dry and a creepy stench filled the surrounding air.

"Something is just wrong here.", Byakuren thought. "I cannot feel anyone, neither humans nor youkai, but there should be something,... someone."

Byakuren dressed up again and turned around. The sun stood high in the sky, symbolizing it was around noon. "I have to leave this place behind. I am unable to feel life, thus this space must be already dead."

Byakuren went to an open place in the woods and jumped up to fly around. Only now she realised what really happened and could not believe her own eyes: "Great gods of dharma... oh Buddha... please, let this be a nightmare and not the truth..."

Byakuren was unable to comprehend the disaster at first. The little patch of wood where she landed was surrounded by enormous craters everywhere. Many of them were blood-red, mud and rotten flesh lay in the holes. She landed to search near the craters, and found an umbrella. It was Kogasa's.

She could barely watch into the crater, too big was the shock. The little karakasa's body was half-buried, half over the earth in the pan. Her arms were decapitated several times, her head turned 180 degrees backwards. Heavy fire damage was done to her skin and clothes, making her body look like charcoal. Her inner organs were ripped inside out and flies and maggots were eating on her broken legs. A truly devastating view.

Byakuren could not hold it in and threw up at once over the disgusting sight. After some time she tried to get away from there and try to find any survivors – unsuccessful, as it happened. The human village was burned down to the roots, with the humans having suffered the same fate as the youkai of surprise. The rice fields had become a place slaughter, the village people tried to flee it seemed. Flying around, Byakuren found more and more evidence that likely no one in the whole of Gensokyo might have survived.

The Scarlet Devil mansion was ruined, the misty lake vaporised. Somewhere was Cirno, seemingly alive and yet not, chained to a boulder. As a fairy she could not die, but she had gone insane from the apocalypse that had happened.

"Are- are you... Cirno?" Byakuren tried to talk to the fairy, but she pulled like an animal on the chain tied to her neck like a dog. She was badly hurt, deeply scratched all over her body, her clothes torn, barely resembling her favourite dress any more. Her right arm was twisted multiple times, and she must have gone through hell already with the pain it caused. Byakuren wanted to help her, but Cirno tried to bite her like a mad hound would, wild and uncontrollable. Healing her had the risk of Byakuren herself getting hurt badly by the ice fairy.

"I will leave you alone, may the Gods have mercy." With these words, Byakuren went away leaving the disturbed shadow of the once proud fairy youkai behind. Unsure what to do now, she went to the only place she knew where to find help.

She landed in front of the Hakurei Shrine, which seemed to be relatively undamaged. "This might be only due to the wards, though." Byakuren thought and entered the shrine. She regretted this decision barely a minute later, when an arrow made its way towards her, and she could catch it only millimetres before her eye. The archer was Reimu herself, stripped of her Hakurei orbs, her magic seemingly taken away, she gave a lifeless expression of herself. Her skin appeared dry, her clothes kept barely together and she could not speak. The view in her eyes was dumb and she shivered holding the bow. Not much remained of the great Miko who had saved Gensokyo so often in the past.

"Reimu, I... you are alive. Can you tell me what happened?" Byakuren asked. Reimu did not seem to understand the question and hold the bow up again. Then it was noticeable what she actually suffered – Utsuho had ripped her tongue out and left her to die a gruesome death alone in the rubble. Her being alive after all this time was half a miracle, half a curse for her.

The muted Reimu fired another arrow, which Byakuren took out of the air again and broke into two. She went over and disarmed the Miko, then tried to restore her with her powers. Reimu fought against it, believing Byakuren would try to hurt her, just until she slept in by the saint's magic. Hours later she awoke, her wounds healed, her tongue restored but still without her magic.

"You healed me, despite me trying to fend you off. But what can I do? I am stripped of my powers, and everyone else is dead. That insanity in person did not kill me for reasons beyond me. What do you want?" Reimu looked heavily depressed, even more than the moment she held that bow up and at the intruder.

"You see, I died already but came back. The gods gave me a new power, the power of timetravel, enabling me to undo all those gruesome things, but I need to know when and why this happened. If you have any ideas, any suggestions what I shall do to prevent the slaughter, then tell me your opinions." Byakuren said, looking over to Reimu.

Reimu thought heavily about it, then it came to her: "Remilia! Save her first, she is the first victim as I know. Go back to the 23rd of April and head right over to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Tell her that I send you and give her this to prove it." Reimu gave Byakuren a small silver cross.

"With this, she will let you in. Then you wait for that insane bird and beat the crap out of her!"

Byakuren took the cross and replied: "I thank you for your gratitude and trust. I will depart shortly then and I promise I will stop her. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"If you kick her out, this entire scenario will become bleak for me anyway. Head off and don't screw up."

With this, Byakuren went off right away. Reimu tried to sleep in after Byakuren's departure, but suddenly her ears started hurting. Wondering, she touched them, noticing cross-styled earrings. "Huh? Did I always have those?"

In the meanwhile, Byakuren reached her designation. Cherry blossom were where they should be, she had landed in the spring time again. She went off to the Scarlet Devil Mansion right away and landed in front of Meiling, the door guard.

"Halt! Who are you and what do you want?" the Chinese girl asked.

"I am Byakuren and I am send by Reimu because I have to talk to Remilia. Here, Reimu told me to show this so I can prove it."

Meiling looked at the charm, then nodded: "Alright, you may go in. But behave, ya hear me?"

Byakuren was given entry to the mansion. The huge gate opened to a yard full of flowers and trees, and, somewhere in the distance, the towering mansion showed itself. A huge, European castle, including its own clock tower on one side made of red brick with a dark blue and black roof, it was an impressive structure worthy of the high-class that were the vampire twins Remilia and Flandre.

The front door, just as huge as the garden gate, opened up. The dark brown wooden door made a sound typical for its age while the gold decorations from another age have shown their lot. Byakuren stepped into an eternally long floor, repeating the same pattern of doors, angled architecture and lights endlessly.

A fairy maid came along her, asking her in simple speech: "Who are you, what you want!"

Byakuren answered the rather rude sounding fairy: "I am Byakuren Hijiri, and I wish to be bought to your Mistress."

The fairy tilted her head, not understanding the term "Mistress" it seemed. Byakuren sighted and repeated: "Please bring me to your boss."

Brightening up, the fairy flew away and Byakuren followed her. After some time, the fairy stopped in front of a door, looking exactly like every other door in the long floor. "Floor is enchanted. Must stop for few minutes. Then after stop, search for door with gold knob, that's right one." The fairy resumed to her work, while Byakuren noticed the indeed golden knob, opened the door and stepped in.

Inside was a sparsely outfitted room, a bed, a desk, a drawer, a tiny window and a few pictures. They showed Remilia, Flandre, Sakuya and a few others of the inhabitants of Kumakan. Byakuren thought she was in the wrong room, after all Remilia would for once sleep in a coffin and also never spend time in such a tiny room.

"What are you doing in my room?" a voice came up from behind Byakuren.

It was Sakuya, the head maid, thus it was her room, not Remilia's. Byakuren sighed, then answered: "I am sorry. One of the fairy maids who I asked to bring me to her boss led me here. You are Sakuya Izayoi, right? Reimu Hakurei send me, I am searching for your mistress, Remilia."

"Show me a proof of that."

Sakuya seemed annoyed. Byakuren held up the small silver cross and Sakuya nodded.

"Very well, I will lead you to the mistress' room, but she is currently a little busy so you should remain silent until she has time for you."

Sakuya gave Byakuren a very sharp look, then led her to the throne room. Remilia sat above it, in front of her were some peasants from the human village bowing down and offering various bottles.

Remilia laughed like the childish brat she was, then spoke up: "Ha, very well as usual. For another year my minions will protect the human village from remaining evil spirits. But don't you dare to forget, without me you all are worthless."

The three humans from the village went out, Sakuya leaning on the opened door eyes closed as she waited until Remilia would calm down from her obvious superiority showing, then told Byakuren to come. Bowing down and holding her skirt up slightly to show her devotion, she stood up and presented Byakuren to Remilia.

Remilia, holding a wine glass filled with fresh blood from one of the bottles, leaned in her throne in what looked quite an uncomfortable position, but gave the saint a sharp view: "Speak up, what do you want, nun?"

"I will come straight to the point, you and your entire mansion are in great danger from an evil spirit who possessed the eternal flame of the underground, Utsuho Reiuji. I plead to you to show awareness at all times and to increase your guard. I do not know when she will attack, but..."

Byakuren was cut out by Remilia: "Wait wait wait. ME? In DANGER? Oh sure, is that some kinda joke you and Reimu are trying to pull off? Seriously, I am the SCARLET DEVIL, unbeaten but once in my entire life. And you think I'm in danger? Sakuya, get her out of my sight!"

"At once, Milady. Please follow me."

Byakuren could not stand such a huge ego that Remilia showed, then took out the cross and threw it upwards. Remilia caught it. "As a vampire, you should be able to recognise whose blood this is."

Remilia held the cross near her nose, then looked shocked: "It's Reimu's blood! Explain that!"

Byakuren was about to say that she came from the future, but an explosion interrupted her before she could open her mouth. Turning around, she was devastated – it seemed Utsuho was already here.


	4. Corruption on a nuclear level

**Corruption on a nuclear level**

"Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert! All personnel on their stations! Fairy Maids into the main corridor! Prepare for counter attack! Sakuya Izayoi, Patchouli Knowledge and Hong Meiling into the throne room!"

Patchouli's new intruder alert system, made audible over the entire mansion, went off with a loud speaker voice, accompanied by an annoying noisy sound. Sakuya, luckily, was already there. She and Remilia went off, feeling capable of encountering the intruder. The ignored Byakuren followed them, with Patchouli and Hong Meiling quickly catching up.

A fairy maid squad went flying ahead the group towards the dinning room, and thus the girls followed them.

"Fairies, charge! For the Kumakan!" The squad leader shouted and they hurried inside.

The intruder was indeed in the dinning hall. The huge fresco above it shattered and most of the interior molten into glassy ash, the various fairy maids crashed in, however without much of a chance to counter. In mere seconds, they were blasted to bits courtesy of a huge beam weapon.

The five girls ran into the smoking remains of the dinning hall. Coal-reduced bits and pieces of the chairs and table were laying around, the centuries-old ornament glass windows shattered, the chandeliers ripped to the ground, reforged into formless metal. Dust was covering most of the sight in the room, but quickly began to fade - and there she stood: Utsuho Reiuji, the eternal scorching star.

Her long jet-black hair waving over her even longer black wings and the control rod in position, she gave a grim look to the group of defenders. Then she realised: "You again? Did I not kill you already?"

Those words belonged to Byakuren, who appeared just as clueless. It was true she was killed by Utsuho already, but not in the "past" but the "future", so how could she know?

"Sakuya, Patchouli, ATTACK!" Remilia shouted and maid and magician jumped into battle. Patchouli prepared her famous spells while Sakuya threw a multitude of knives towards Utsuho to distract her.

"Sun Sign "Royal Flare"!", Patchouli shot her light-based spell-card at Utsuho, she who had the power of the sun must have felt the irony.

"Nonsense!" she screamed, and not only fried Sakuya's knives in mid-air, but shot right back at Patchouli with her arm cannon. Sakuya jumped in, used her time stopping powers and teleported Patchouli right away, a gaping hole where she just stood a second ago was all that was left.

All the while, Hong Meiling and Byakuren tried with all their force to keep Remilia away from the battle she so enthusiastically wanted to join in. It did not take long and she got herself free, flying over Sakuya and clashing with her claws right at Utsuho.

"Oh ho, the Mistress herself joins in?" Utsuho was delighted, because it was the situation she waited for. Grabbing Remilia by her wings, she held her cannon near the head of the little vampire and charged up.

"Milady!" Sakuya shouted, then ran over, managing to get Remilia out (who felt quite humiliated for being tricked so easily), but Utsuho managed to knock her away, then jumped up and towards Patchouli, who tried to prepare another spell.

"Feeling lucky, magician?" She smirked, then kicked the witch in the guts, sending her flying towards a wall. At the last second, Byakuren who herself had prepared a spell-card, "St. Nikou's Air Scroll", cached the unlucky cute witch and put her down. She was unconscious but still mostly alive.

"YOU! I will NEVER forgive you!" Byakuren was raging mad at the show in front of her. Not only had Utsuho single-handedly killed dozens of fairy maids, she also easily defeated Patchouli.

Sakuya and Remilia had reappeared by now, and joined Byakuren, who also got the help of Hong Meiling, who until now was away.

"Meiling, were have you been!" Remilia exclaimed annoyed.

"I am sorry, but a different duty came to my attention." This "duty" then jumped over her head and in front of them – Flandre.

"Hello sis, I heard we are in trouble, so I came to play. So, who do we play with?" Flandre was as cheerful as ever, while holding her wand "Lævateinn" up. Remilia now summoned the "Gungnir" and pointed at Utsuho.

"Do you see that girl over there? She hurt Patchouli, go and play with her."

"Oh what? You will pay!" Flandre cheerfully said.

Utsuho was waiting until the five ended their chit-chat talk: "So, will you attack me now or am I supposed to sprout roots here? C'MON, I'M WAITING!"

"Fine then. Everyone, ATTACK!"

Remilia took the command and, while four Flandres went flying towards Utsuho who fired her cannon at her, charged up and then summoned a multitude of bullets. Byakuren used her super-speed to get behind Utsuho and hold her for a second, while Sakuya stopped the time, excluding for herself and Byakuren, then positioned a hundred knives, went out with Byakuren and send them flying.

Utsuho was completely unprepared as most of the mini daggers slashed in her body. With bleeding wounds, she realised – too late – the four Flandres around her. "Let's go kyuun!"

All of them took Utsuho as the target and smiled – an explosion followed that shook the entire mansion. Jumping into one another, Flandre was one again, Utsuho not to be seen. However, the Control Rod was on the ground. Remilia picked it up.

"Did we win? That was too easy. Sis, I'm bored." Flandre pointed out her boredom over the easy victory.

"This is most unlikely, she still is here, somewhere." As it came out, this was quite correct. Utsuho broke through the rest of what was the wall, shattering it into pieces. Sakuya and Hong Meiling immediately jumped towards her, now was the time for Meiling's rainbow danmaku and her extra-ordinary fighting skills.

She fired a "Colourful Sign "Extreme Colour Typhoon"" spell-card as a distraction, the gale wind shortly blocking Utsuho's movement. Then Hong almost instantly ran towards the hell raven, kicking her out into the yard. Everyone followed her.

Utsuho landed in a flower bed. Meiling did not waste time but set of a chain of ki-attacks on the raven girl, who could only try to defend herself. Without her arm cannon, her fighting skills were quite limited – or so everyone thought at least.

Utsuho managed to slowly stand up against Hong Meiling's barrage, then counter-attacking her, grabbing both her fists. With a spin, she threw the poor gate guard at the clock tower, destroying it in the process. Loudly crashing, it came down, the bell ringing once before a deafening sound audible over the entire region set off a dust wave.

Meiling not to be seen, Byakuren's last spell-card had already run out, so instead she concentrated, then used "Great Magic "Devil's Recitation"". Sprouting a huge flower shape with four orbs, she began firing a multitude of lasers and streams of bullets from each of them towards Utsuho. However, the hell raven was amazingly fast and quite capable of dodging them.

Remilia, in the meanwhile, lost patience and handed the arm cannon to Flandre, then readied her wings and went flying towards Utsuho. Her right hand's claws wide out and Gungnir in the other hand, she slashed at the raven girl, who apparently had healed from her former damage. Kicking and shouting to get Remilia away, she turned around, dodging the streams while also dodging the vampiric brat. Then she noticed Flandre, who held the arm cannon with an annoyed facial expression and Sakuya, who was apparently ordered to keep her down.

As Remilia would not stop coming at her, she went right at Byakuren, Remilia sharply behind her. Hijiri, who was forced to abort the spell since it locked her in one spot, noticed Utsuho flying right up to her too late, letting Remilia crash into the saint. Unable to stop or evade, the vampire brutally smashed into the nun, knocking the both of them out in the process.

Sakuya and Flandre, now the only remaining combatants, readied themselves once more, but Utsuho was faster than ever before.

"Did you honestly think this was all I would be able to do?" She smirked, then took out one of Sakuya's knives and rammed it straight into the maid. It was so quick neither she nor Flandre could react. The house keeper went down bleeding heavily, Utsuho clawing her clock and destroying it with her bare hand.

"You are the only survivor. I will take on the rest later." Utsuho appeared self-sure, and walked towards a shivering Flandre. This emotion was something completely new to the little vampire – fear.

Utsuho grabbed the arm cannon, charged it and fired at Sakuya's body, turning it into dust. Then she clawed, held up and choked Flandre. "So, you will join me now. Do you see this horn on my forehead? It's the proof of a power granted to me. You too will become one with me. Embrace it."

Tears ran down on Flandre's cheeks, until she passed out. Utsuho then turned her into light, absorbing her into her body. Her wings, formerly in unison black feathers, were now accompanied by the same crystals that made up Flandre's wings.

"Tsk, too bad I can only absorb one person at a time. Guess I have to annihilate their bodies before they wake up."

With these thoughts in mind, Utsuho charged her cannon, embarked to the sky and unleashed a miniature sun, slowly descending onto the Kumakan. A minute later, the whole area exploded in nuclear fire, the clouds of the misty lake as well as the lake itself blown away, boiled and emptied, only a large crater remaining.

"I can only hope I did not use enough power. Gensokyo is certainly large, but someone just might have noticed these fireworks. Oh well, on to the next target." And with that in mind, Utsuho quickly ascended higher and got away quickly.

Byakuren, in the meanwhile once again stood in front of the Sanzu River. Komachi greeted her but appeared to not know her. Of course, she would have met the ferrywoman only slightly in the future. Meiling, Patchouli, Remilia and Sakuya with her, the girls slowly travelled over the huge river, ghosts accompanying them to the other side. Remilia was impressed by the sight when they reached the door to the underworld, the huge golden gate Byakuren will already have passed in the future by her then-younger self.

"Be not feared, I already joined the netherworld once, but they granted me a second try. Of course, I have failed my mission badly, thus I will have to appeal to the gods to let me try it a third time." Byakuren said with a calm voice.

"You already died once and came back from the dead? This is indeed impressive. How did you do that?" Patchouli asked.

"I am not allowed to answer this question. However, I am sure I will be allowed another try. Now let us go."

Remilia, who never thought she would ever die, remained very close to Sakuya when they went through the golden gate. Inside, the familiar view opened up. Shikieiki's table or throne in the middle and her subordinates running around trying to figure out where the papers have to be put in, everything was the same from Byakuren's point of view.


End file.
